Sexuality and Hispanic Culture: Counseling with Children and Their Parents

Attempting to help Hispanic teenagers and their parents negotiate their way through the mine fields of developmental sexuality can be an imposing task. As the Hispanic population continues to increase, it is becoming more and more a necessity to understand this culture's sexual roadmaps. This article focuses on providing therapists and counselors with theoretical cornerstones, based on generalizations and suppositions gleaned from available research and our own clinical experience, for working with Hispanic families when sexuality is the presenting problem. Among topics that are addressed are the acculturation process, language issues, the machismo/La Santita concept, sexual stereotyping, the masculine bind of the Latin Lover myth, and incest/abuse issues. Implications for therapy are presented as well as practical suggestions for working with Hispanic families.